Gestalt Training Testimonials

“As a novice therapist, I found that I was limited in the help I could provide to others when I was so much in need of guidance myself. The training gave me the experience and knowledge I needed to transcend these limitations. Gestalt theory gave me an intellectual understanding of human behavior; my training group and leaders helped me appreciate the actual impact of my own behavior on others, and theirs on me. I developed close relationships with my classmates and trainers that allowed me to process my own experience as a human being in a safe and loving environment. In turn, I now apply this knowledge and these experiences to the interventions I make with my clients, as well as the decisions I make in personal relationships.”

Suzy Rouleau, MA, MSW

“I have been working in the field of Mental Health for the majority of 36 years as a professional. Learning Gestalt was originally for professional advancement – acquisition of new skill-set. To my great delight (and sometime consternation) the initial impact has been personal – a re-awakening of possibilities for myself, and greater understanding. The greatest impact has been integration of body and mind. Mariah, Dori and Mark are perhaps the greatest teachers, facilitators that I have encountered.

This self-awareness, as well as the modality and intention of Gestalt is definitely improving my value as a therapist, as well as improving my teaching skills as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. I have gained more from this experience than my traditional Masters – and I am only half done. This has been life changing.”

Nancy C Rutherford MSN CRNP CNS

“This Training fuses the theory and practice of Gestalt therapy with personal growth under the guidance of a master therapist, Mariah Fenton Gladis. I am a much better psychotherapist, husband and father as a result of my three years with the Center”.

John Levenson, LSW, BCD, CGP
Psychotherapist

"My relationship with Mariah and my experience as a student a the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center encouraged me to follow my dreams. Mariah is a living example of courage, determination, unconditional love and compassion. When I shared her with my dream of creating a safe and therapeutic community for children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, she believed in me, pushed me forward with love and offered me wisdom and guidance. Mariah and my fellow students at the center provided me with a sense of family and belonging, which allowed me to move forward with my dream. The center offered me a healthy therapeutic framework to base what has become an ongoing therapeutic family for children coping with HIV/AIDS. My therapeutic work, both individually and as a student in the training, offered me a safe place to heal old wounds and to open my heart to love, acceptance and compassion."

Patty Hillkirk
Camp Dreamcatcher

“The Gestalt Training provided me with a womb-like environment where I could grow, make mistakes, try out my own wings, develop my own style, and be nurtured during the entire process. This training was the greatest gift I gave myself both personally and professionally, and I am extremely grateful to and respectful of the Center’s unique program”.

Debbie Massey, MSS, LSW
Psychotherapist

“Whole and Wonderful! This is an intensive, life changing growth experience. An opportunity to see yourself, and the world, more clearly and honestly in an atmosphere of support, love, and acceptance. It is a community that challenges you to an honest discernment of life.”

Barbara A Schell R.N., M.A.

“The Training has been very effective in leading me to a deep integration of Gestalt theory and practice. Yet in many ways it is more than a training program—it has encouraged me to take a closer look at my life, it has been the source of new friendships, it has had a profound effect on my professional identity”.

Elizabeth S. Revell, PhD
PA Licensed Psychologist

“The Training Program was a priceless experience - filled with opportunities to make wonderful new friends and to renounce terrible old beliefs. Thanks to the healing the trainers created, for me and so many others, I learned how to create a different life for myself—a life of more abundance, success, happiness, and love than I had ever dreamed possible.”

Ellen Fisher, President,
Academy of Community Music

“Both professionally and personally, training with Mariah, Dori and Mark was a phenomenal experience for me. The program gave me new insights as a writer, helped me broaden and expand my computer consulting business, and taught me an enormous amount about interacting with others. When the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center offered a fourth year of training, I signed up immediately.”

Michael Schwager, Writer

“I am now eighty years old. But in 1992, with my psychiatrist husband still working actively, I was bored and frustrated. Before marriage, I had enjoyed being an editor for a woman’s magazine; and while our three sons were growing up, I served on various boards of directors, including the Mental Health Association and the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation. It wasn’t enough. So when my husband became intrigued with Gestalt therapy techniques, I decided to tag along to a workshop. As a single woman, I had gone through several years of psychoanalysis, but was far from feeling like a free spirit. The Gestalt experience, as led by Mariah Gladis, not only improved my marriage, it led me to a second graduate school degree, this time in clinical social work. Gestalt truly changed my life. I learned that I was an angry, not a goody-good person; that I had suffered loss after loss, innocently, blaming no one but myself; that I needed to find my own voice. I wanted to be perfect, and I didn’t even know who or what I was. I was sixty-six when I began a happy eleven years of work as a therapist at Family Service of Chester County, and continued with a small, satisfying private practice. Far better late than never!”

Joyce Winston

"Mariah. I thank you for the countless gifts you give to me and all of us—and especially for the fact that I wake up every day filled with hope and gratitude instead of sadness and doom. You have made the difference. Much love to you."

Alice "Mikie" Fernley, Board Chair,
Academy of Community Music

“Mariah is uniquely able to work as a therapist with clear command of a highly disciplined practice while remaining utterly in touch with her own vulnerability. In this way she is more than a healer: she provides a model for self-healing. Her courage to face the gradual unraveling of control within her own body has been matched with an iron focus on what needs to be done for herself, her friends and family and, without fail, for her clients and students.

Mariah has watched me like a vigilant guardian focused on my wellness as I emerged from a kind of foggy depression, reconnected with myself and my family and found the successful vocation I never would have dared to pursue. I am utterly grateful and know that this book can provide both inspiration and guidance for anyone who is ready to go on their own miraculous journey of healing.”